FRANCIS BACON the Advancement of Learning

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The Advancementof Learning

FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626)

THE TWO BOOKS OFFRANCIS BACON,OF THEPROFICIENCE AND ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING,DIVINE AND HUMAN.

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THE FIRST BOOKTo the King1. THERE were under the law, excellent King, both dailySacrifices and free-will offerings; the one proceeding uponordinary Observance, the other upon a devout cheerfulness: inlike manner there belongeth to Kings from their servants bothtribute of duty and presents of affection. In the former of these Ihope I shall not live to be wanting, according to my mosthumble duty, and the good pleasure of your Majesty'semployments: for the latter, I thought it more respective to makechoice of some oblation, which might rather refer to thepropriety and excellency of your individual person, than to thebusiness of your crown and state.2. Wherefore, representing your Majesty many times unto mymind, and beholding you, not with the inquisitive eye of presumption, to discover that which the Scripture telleth me isinscrutable, but with the observant eye of duty and admiration;leaving aside the other parts of your virtue and fortune, I havebeen touched, yea, and possessed with an extreme wonder atthose your virtues and faculties, which the Philosophers callintellectual; the largeness of your capacity, the faithfulness of your memory, the swiftness of your apprehension, te penetrationof your judgment, and the facility and order of your elocution:and I have often thought that of all the persons living that I haveknown, your Majesty were the best instance to make a man of Plato's opinion, that all knowledge is but remembrance, and thatthe mind of man by nature knoweth all things, and hath but herown native and original notions [1605: "motions"; 1629; 1633:"notions"] (which by the strangeness and darkness of thistabernacle of the body are sequestered) again revived andrestored: such a light of nature I have observed in your Majesty,and such a readiness to take flame and blaze from the least

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occasion presented, or the least spark of another's knowledgedelivered. And as the Scripture saith of the wisest king, THATHIS HEART WAS AS THE SANDS OF THE SEA, whichthough it be one of the largest bodies, yet it consisteth of thesmallest and finest portions; so hath God given your Majesty acomposition of understanding admirable, being able to compassand comprehend the greatest matters, and nevertheless to touchand apprehend the least; whereas it should seem an impossibilityin nature for the same instrument to make itself fit for great andsmall works. And for your gift of speech, I call to mind whatCornelius Tacitus saith of Augustus Caesar: AUGUSTOPROFLUENS, ET QUAE PRINCIPEM DECERET,ELOQUENTIA FUIT. For, if we note it well, speech that isuttered with labour and difficulty, or speech that savoureth of the affectation of art and precepts, or speech that is framed afterthe imitation of some pattern of eloquence, though never soexcellent; all this hath somewhat servile, and holding of thesubject. But your Majesty's manner of speech is indeed prince-like, bowing as from a fountain, and yet streaming andbranching itself into nature's order, full of facility and felicity,imitating none, and inimitable by any. And as in your civilestate there appeareth to be an emulation and contention of yourmajesty's virtue with your fortune; a virtuous disposition with afortunate regiment; a virtuous expectation (when time [2] was)of your greater fortune, with a prosperous possession thereof inthe due time; a virtuous observation of the laws of marriage,with most blessed and happy fruit of marriage; a virtuous andmost Christian desire of peace, with a fortunate inclination inyour neighbour princes thereunto: so likewise, in theseintellectual matters, there seemeth to be no less contentionbetween the excellency of your Majesty's gifts of nature, and theuniversality and perfection [1605: profection] of your learning.For I am well assured that this which I shall say is noamplification at all, but a positive and measured truth; which is,that there hath not been since Christ's time any King or temporalMonarch, which has been so learned in all literature anderudition, divine and human. For let a man seriously and